8 Tips for Making the Perfect Wedding Program

You’ve recently landed a design project to create a wedding program for an excited couple’s upcoming special day. Fantastic! My design process below offers some creative direction and inspiration to get the results that will satisfy your clients’ expectations.

There’s nothing more exhilarating than getting ready for the BIG wedding day. I should know since I got married back in 2014. You want all the details to be brilliant and exactly the way you dreamed them up in your head.

With all this in mind, when working for a bride-to-be, especially the ones who have an eye for detail, you’re going to need to be at your very best as you interpret what she says into what she wants. No pressure! You’ve got this! Besides, I’m here to help.

Here are my eight (8) phresh tips to make the perfect wedding program for your clients:

1. Meet with the happy couple and get a really good grasp on what their visions are for their wedding day – colours, mood, style, decor, etc. It’s important to ask all the right questions (examples below) in the first meeting, so you’ll have all the necessary information you need to get started.• What size wedding program do you have in mind? • What are the colours of the wedding? • What’s your personal taste/style? • Do you have some design ideas in mind?• What’s your deadline? [Always log your design times in a timesheet]

2. Afterwards, put together a simple or detailed creative/design brief based on the answers you received coupled with your creativity for what could be. It could be anywhere from a few sentences to a page or two. You just need to communicate the intended visual experience in not just words, but with images.

3. It’s time to choose a colour palette that captures and complements the colours and intended atmosphere/feel of the wedding. Remember that as their designer, part of your job also includes educating them on certain things like why one colour works over another and why some colours should never be combined.

4. Find inspiration in what the couple likes…better yet, loves. Ask them to show you some examples of designs they fancy. It’s a lot easier to build on that and gives you the clear proverbial roadmap you’ll need to conjure up some ideas. [Don’t try to read minds]

Design inspiration

Design inspiration

5. Experiment with thecreative direction using a combination of things:

• Rough sketches offer tremendous flexibility to figure out concepts, so grab your pencil/pen and paper and get started;• Design the bare minimum first (experimenting with fonts and layouts only), using the software you typically work in. Adobe InDesign (tutorials to get your started) is always my go-to software for work in print;• Work fast and see if you’re on the right track by comparing work in progress to first creative/design brief.

My design process, where quickly put everything down on paper

6. Start adding requested colours, accents, and backgrounds (images or colours). Now comes the fun part, where you get to really personalise the design to reflect the wedding colour scheme by pulling inspiration from – bridal party outfits (dresses and suits) and accessories (like bouquets and ties, pocket squares, and lapel pinsfrom Ocean Boulevard), plate settings, decorations, and so on.

7. Present two to three great options to your clients. Honestly, that’s typically the best approach to take. Flooding your clients with four or more options can get really confusing and overwhelming, so create as many designs as possible and then shortlist your top three.

8. Fine-tune final choice and make changes with a combination of client feedback and your own ideas. Make sure to give your clients the correct file format for print. May I suggest a high-quality PDF file (300 dpi).

So after all that, here’s the custom wedding program that I created for a very HAPPY couple!

Specifications:

Rustic Elegance

3.5 inches x 7.5 inches

Double-sided

Purples and golds

Full colour

Card stock paper

The finished product features gold accents against a gradient backdrop of purple and mauve

To the designers, I hope you found my tips useful and I wish you good luck with your own creative projects for your clients’ wedding. I know you’ll do a stellar job.

If you’re getting married soon and you stumbled on this blog post and you’re interested in having Phresh Ideas and Designscraft your ideal wedding program or wedding stationery (invitations, save-the-date card(s), wedding program, directions/map card, table number cards, menu, etc.), drop me a line. And feel free to look around and see what other services I offer.